Method and system for improving robustness of interference nulling for antenna arrays

ABSTRACT

The present invention discloses a method and system for improving the robustness of interference nulling for antenna arrays in a wireless communication network. The method is comprised of generating a first interference spatial signature from an interference signal matrix received by the antenna array, deriving a second interference spatial signature from the first interference spatial signature, calculating a covariance matrix from the second interference spatial signature, and generating a beamforming weighting vector from the covariance matrix.

CROSS REFERENCE

The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. 60/836,720, which was filed on Aug. 10, 2006.

BACKGROUND

Interference is one of the factors that impair the performance of a wireless communication network. Interference reduces the capacity of a wireless communication channel and causes problems such as dropping calls, reduced data rates, etc.

It is crucial for wireless communication network designers to develop a method to mitigate interference. The most commonly used approaches include underutilizing communication channels, limiting the number of users in a communication network, and reducing the coverage area of a cell. In essence, conventional methods trade spectrum efficiency for better performance of a wireless communication network. As a result, it takes longer for a wireless communication network service provider to recover the investment in a wireless communication network.

In a wireless communication network, a base transceiver station (BTS) equipped with an antenna array has the facility to shape its antenna beam pattern. By applying a set of beamforming weighting vectors to the antenna array, the BTS can create a directional beam steered toward a specific customer premises equipment (CPE) to increase the strength of a signal.

The same technique can be adopted to mitigate interference in a wireless communication network. The nulling angle of an antenna beam pattern could be placed toward the interference direction of arrival (DOA), while most of the gain on the beam is still maintained in the direction of the CPE. As a result, the strength of an interference signal is diminished to the point that it has less or no effect on the wireless communication network. This approach is commonly known as interference nulling for antenna arrays.

In a wireless communication network that employs interference nulling for antenna arrays, a beamforming weighting vector w of an antenna array is determined based on the following eigenvalue equation: (R_(i)+σ_(n) ²I)⁻¹R_(s)·w=λw (1), where R_(i) is the covariance matrix calculated from interference signals; σ_(n) is the standard deviation of channel noises; R_(s) is the covariance matrix calculated from the desired signals; I is the identity matrix; λ is the maximum eigenvalue. This is often referred to as an eigenvalue beamforming/interference suppression method.

The interference covariance matrix in equation 1 describes interference DOA. Since the beamforming weighting vector calculated from equation 1 takes the interference DOA into consideration, the antenna beam pattern is rotated properly. In other words, by applying the beamforming weighting vector to the antenna array on the BTS, the antenna beam pattern is rotated, with the nulling angle repositioned toward the interference DOA. Conventionally, an interference covariance matrix is determined by the spatial signatures of interference signals.

FIG. 1 is a diagram that depicts an antenna beam pattern and interference DOA in an ideal environment. A dominant beam 110 is shown as a lobe in the antenna beam pattern. Signal DOA 120 and interference DOA 130 are shown as a straight line. A nulling angle 140 is positioned toward the interference DOA 130. Since the interference DOA 130 falls within the nulling angle 140, the strength of the interference signal is greatly reduced. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the null is located at the very steep slope of an antenna beam pattern.

FIG. 2A is a diagram that depicts an antenna beam pattern and interference DOA in an actual environment. Interference DOA 220 falls within a dominant beam 210 of the antenna beam pattern. As a result, interference signals reduce the signal to noise ratio of the CPE.

FIG. 2B is a diagram that depicts an antenna beam pattern with conventional interference nulling of antenna arrays. It shows a scenario in which interference DOA 220 remains within a dominant beam 212 after the antenna beam pattern is rotated by a rotation angle 240. A small degree of error in the interference covariance matrix reduces the accuracy of the beamforming weighting vector, which in turn leads to an incorrect rotation angle so that the nulling angle misses the interference DOA. In this scenario, the performance of the wireless communication network is degraded.

As such, what is desired is a method and system for improving an interference covariance matrix, used in an interference nulling method, which will produce a more effective beamforming weighting vector that yields a wider nulling angle. A wider nulling angle makes an antenna beam pattern less susceptible to an error in the interference covariance matrix.

SUMMARY

The present invention discloses a method and system for improving the robustness of interference nulling for antenna arrays in a wireless communication network. The method comprises of generating a first interference spatial signature from an interference signal matrix received by the antenna array, deriving a second interference spatial signature from the first interference spatial signature, calculating a covariance matrix from the second interference spatial signature, and generating a beamforming weighting vector from the covariance matrix.

The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The drawings accompanying and forming part of this specification are included to depict certain aspects of the invention. The invention may be better understood by reference to one or more of these drawings in combination with the description presented herein. It should be noted that the features illustrated in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an antenna beam pattern and interference DOA in an ideal environment.

FIG. 2A is a diagram illustrating an antenna beam pattern and interference DOA in an actual environment.

FIG. 2B is a diagram illustrating an antenna beam pattern and interference DOA after a beamforming weighting vector is applied to an antenna array.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for generating a beamforming weighting vector in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram that depicts an antenna beam pattern using an interference nulling method disclosed in the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a first way to obtain a set of interference derivative spatial signatures.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a second way to obtain a set of interference derivative spatial signatures.

DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description of the invention refers to the accompanying drawings. The description includes exemplary embodiments, not excluding other embodiments, and changes may be made to the embodiments described without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The following detailed description does not limit the invention. Instead, the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims.

The present invention discloses a method and system for improving the robustness of interference nulling for antenna arrays in a wireless communication network. The method and system generates an interference covariance matrix that is used to calculate a more robust beamforming weighting vector for an antenna array.

In a conventional method, an interference covariance matrix is directly deducted from the interference spatial signatures of a CPE. However, in the method disclosed in the present invention, an interference covariance matrix is deducted from the derivative interference spatial signatures, which are generated from the interference spatial signatures of a CPE. The derivative interference spatial signatures can be viewed as a set of predicted interference spatial signatures of a CPE.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for generating a beamforming weighting vector for interference nulling in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. In step 310, a BTS with m antennas in a wireless communication network receives interference signals in n receiving periods.

Each of the m antennas on the BTS receives an interference signal s_(ij) at time i, where j ε (1, . . . m). Let

$Y_{i} = \begin{bmatrix} s_{i\; 1} \\ s_{i\; 2} \\ \vdots \\ s_{im} \end{bmatrix}$

be a vector representing the receiving interference signals for all m antennas at time i. A receiving interference signal matrix Y has vector elements (Y₁,Y₂, . . . ,Y_(n)) and Y=(Y₁,Y₂, . . . ,Y_(n)).

An interference spatial signature V′ of the CPE is calculated from the receiving interference signal matrix Y with a common algorithm known to a person having skills in the arts. Step 310 is repeated continuously over time for constantly monitoring interference signals in the wireless communication network.

In step 320, the BTS records the last l interference spatial signatures generated in step 310. Let V_(R) be a matrix with vector elements (V₁′,V₂′, . . . ,V_(l)′) and V_(R)=(V₁′,V₂′, . . . ,V_(l)′) represents an interference spatial signature matrix, wherein V_(i)′ is the i-th spatial signature.

In Step 330, a set of m interference derivative spatial signatures is created from the interference spatial signature matrix V_(R) and forms a matrix W according to one of the two methods described in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 below.

In step 340, an interference covariance matrix is calculated from the matrix W with an algorithm that a person having skills in the arts would know.

In Step 350, a beamforming weighting vector of the CPE, based on interference nulling for antenna arrays, is generated with the interference covariance matrix. The beamforming weighting vector is applied to the antenna array to create an antenna beam pattern whose nulling angle is wider than that of an antenna beam pattern created using a conventional interference nulling method.

FIG. 4 is a diagram that depicts an antenna beam pattern using the interference nulling method according to the embodiment of the present invention described above. A dominant beam 412 represents a dominant beam 410 after it is rotated by a rotation angle 440 in accordance with the beamforming weighting vector created by the method disclosed in the present invention. FIG. 4 shows a scenario in which interference DOA 420 falls outside the dominant beam 412 because a nulling angle 460 is wider than one created by a conventional method; for example, the nulling angle depicted in FIG. 1.

When a nulling angle around interference DOA is wider, a small degree of error in the interference covariance matrix will not severely impact the efficiency of an interference nulling method because the interference DOA will fall within the wider span of the nulling angle.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a first way to obtain a set of interference derivative spatial signatures. In step 510, a set of I interference spatial signatures is generated. (Referring to steps 310 and 320 of FIG. 3 regarding interference spatial signatures.)

In step 520, a matrix V_(D) is calculated. Each vector element of the matrix V_(D) is the delta vector of two consecutive interference spatial signatures, i.e., V′_(D)=(V′_(i+1)−V′₁) and V_(D)=(V′₂−V′₁ . . . ,V′_(i)−V′_(i−1) . . . ,V′_(l)−V′_(l−1)), where i ε {2, . . . ,l).

In step 530, a norm of each vector element in the matrix V_(D) is calculated according to the following equation: Δ_(i)=∥V′_(i+1)−V′_(i)∥, where Δ_(i) is the norm of the delta vector of two consecutive interference spatial signatures in V_(R).

In step 540, interference spatial signature norm Δ is the average of Δ_(i) and is calculated according to the following equation:

$\Delta = {\frac{\sum\limits_{i = 2}^{l}\; \Delta_{i}}{l - 1}.}$

In step 550, an optimization process is employed to calculate a set of m interference derivative spatial signatures, which are the vector elements of a matrix V_(M), where V_(M)=(V₁, . . . ,V_(j), . . . ,V_(m)) and j ε {1, . . . ,m). The number of interference derivative spatial signatures is predetermined according to the requirements of the wireless communication network. The interference derivative spatial signature vectors must satisfy the following three criteria.

First, the norm of each interference derivative spatial signature V_(i) must be equal to 1, i.e., ∥V_(i)∥=1, where i ε {1, . . . ,m). Second, for every interference derivative spatial signature V_(i), where i ε {1, . . . ,m), the Euclidian distance from every V_(i) to the last calculated interference spatial signature V_(l)′ in step 320 of FIG. 3 is equal to the interference spatial signature norm Δ, i.e., ∥V_(i)−V_(l)′∥=Δ, where i ε {1, . . . ,m).

Third, since it is possible that more than one set of interference derivative spatial signatures will satisfy the first and second criteria, the set of interference derivative spatial signatures that are spread most evenly over the two-dimensional space is selected. Namely, the set of V_(i) with the maximum Euclidian distance between V_(i) and the rest of V_(j)s, where j ε {1, . . . ,m) and i≠j according to the equation

$\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{m}\; {\sum\limits_{{j = 1},{j \neq i}}^{m}\; {{V_{i} - V_{j}}}}$

is selected to be the interference derivative spatial signatures that will be used to calculate the interference covariance matrix.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a second way to obtain a set of interference derivative spatial signatures.

In step 610, a set of l interference spatial signatures is generated. (Refer to steps 310 and 320 of FIG. 3 regarding interference spatial signatures.)

In step 620, l−1 interference transformation matrices T_(i) are calculated according to the following equation: T_(i−1)*V_(i−1)′=V_(i)′, where i ε {2, . . . ,l) and T_(i) is the interference transformation matrix that maps V_(i−1)′ to V_(i)′.

In step 630, an optimization process is employed to calculate a set of m interference derivative spatial signatures and creates a matrix V_(M), V_(M)=(V₁, . . . ,V_(j), . . . ,V_(m)) and j ε {1, . . . ,m) according to the following equation: V_(i)=T_(i)*V_(l)′, where i ε {2, . . . ,l) and m≦l−1 and V_(l)′ is the last calculated interference spatial signature. The number of interference derivative spatial signatures is predetermined according to the requirements of the wireless communication network.

The method disclosed in the present invention creates a set of interference derivative spatial signatures from the interference spatial signatures calculated using a conventional method. An interference covariance matrix generated from the interference derivative spatial signatures produces a beamforming weighting vector that results in an antenna beam pattern with a wider nulling angle, which improves the robustness of an interference nulling method.

The above illustration provides many different embodiments or embodiments for implementing different features of the invention. Specific embodiments of components and processes are described to help clarify the invention. These are, of course, merely embodiments and are not intended to limit the invention from that described in the claims.

Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in one or more specific examples, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims. Accordingly, it is appropriate that the appended claims be construed broadly and in a manner consistent with the scope of the invention, as set forth in the following claims. 

1. A method for generating a beamforming weighting vector in a wireless communication network with an antenna array, the method comprising: generating a first interference spatial signature from an interference signal matrix received by the antenna array; deriving a second interference spatial signature from the first interference spatial signature; calculating a covariance matrix from the second interference spatial signature; and generating the beamforming weighting vector from the covariance matrix.
 2. A method of claim 1, wherein the deriving the second interference spatial signature further comprising: generating two or more second vectors, each of which is a difference between two consecutive first vectors of the interference signal matrix; calculating two or more norms of the two or more second vectors and an interference spatial signature norm, which is the average of the norms; generating at least one set of two or more third vectors of interference derivative spatial signatures by employing vector operations and forming a first matrix of two or more third vectors which meet the following criteria: the norm of each third vector equals one; the norm of the difference between each third vector and one of the first vectors equals the interference spatial signature norm; and the third vectors are most evenly spread over the two-dimensional space.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein a set of the second vectors has one fewer element than a set of the first vectors.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein one of the first vectors is the last interference spatial signature calculated by a base transceiver station (BTS).
 5. The method of claim 2, the set of third vectors that are most evenly spread over the two-dimensional space has the maximum Euclidian distance between each vector and the rest in the set, which is calculated according to the following equation: ${\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{m}\; {\sum\limits_{{j = 1},{j \neq i}}^{m}\; {{V_{i} - V_{j}}}}},$ where V_(i) represents the two or more third vectors.
 6. A method for generating a beamforming weighting vector in a wireless communication network with an antenna array, the method comprising: calculating two or more first vectors, which is the interference spatial signatures of a customer's premises equipment; generating two or more first matrices, each of which is an interference transformation matrix of a set of two first vectors and is the product of one of the first vector and the conjugate-transpose of the second vector; generating two or more second vectors of interference derivative spatial signatures by applying the two or more first matrices to one of the first vectors and forming a second matrix of the two or more second vectors; and creating a third matrix, which is the interference covariance matrix of the second matrix, and a beamforming weighting vector that widens the nulling angle of an antenna beam pattern.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the two or more first vectors are interference spatial signatures calculated from receiving signals over time.
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein one of the first vectors is the last interference spatial signature calculated by a base transceiver station.
 9. The method of claim 6, wherein each of the two or more first matrices is the product of two consecutive vectors.
 10. A wireless communication network system comprising: a receiver module with a plurality of antennas to collect signals from a customer premises equipment (CPE) over time; a first vector operation module configured to calculate one or more interference spatial signatures of the CPE to form a first plurality of vectors; a memory module to collect the first plurality of vectors; a second vector operation module to calculate one or more interference derivative spatial signatures from the two or more of the first plurality of vectors to form a second plurality of vectors; and a signal processing module to form a first matrix of interference spatial signatures by using the second plurality of vectors and to compute a third vector, wherein a predetermined antenna beam pattern is generated from the third vector by the signal processing module.
 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the second vector operation module generates the two or more second vectors, each vector in the second plurality of vectors is a difference between two consecutive vectors of the first plurality of vectors.
 12. The system of claim 10, wherein the second vector operation module is further configured to calculates a first plurality of norms from the second plurality of vectors, and computes an interference spatial signature norm from the average of the first plurality of norms.
 13. The system of claim 10, wherein the third vector is a beamforming weighting vector. 